The International Reporting Project (IRP) has awarded 12 senior editors and producers from across the United States fellowships to participate in a 12-day trip to Liberia in November as part of the IRP’s “Gatekeeper Editors” program.
The Liberia trip is the sixth visit to Africa in 11 years that the IRP has organized. Each year the IRP selects two groups of “Gatekeeper Editors” to travel to a country or region to learn more about critical global issues to help them improve their news organizations’ international coverage. Many Gatekeepers have written stories, blogs or produced radio or video stories as a result of the trips.
“We believe it’s important for the U.S. media to go to Africa to learn first-hand about events there,” said John Schidlovsky, director of the IRP, which is based in Washington at The Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Each year the IRP sends dozens of U.S. journalists to Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.
Editors selected for the Liberia trip, scheduled for November 6-18, 2010, are:
Juhie Bhatia, managing editor, Women’s eNews, New York
John Diaz, editorial page editor, San Francisco Chronicle
Tiffany Harness, deputy foreign editor, The Washington Post
Jordana Hochman, editor, “Morning Edition,” National Public Radio
Laura McClure Houghton, new media editor, Mother Jones magazine
Denise Johnson, editorial board member, Star Tribune, Minneapolis
Sunni Khalid, managing news editor, WYPR-FM, Baltimore
Robert Little, director, investigations, The Baltimore Sun
Marjorie Miller, editorial board member, The Los Angeles Times
Toni Randolph, editor for new audiences, Minnesota Public Radio
Steven Scher, executive producer, KUOW-FM, Seattle
Teresa Wiltz, senior editor, The Root.com, Washington DC
The Gatekeepers will meet with a wide range of Liberians and explore issues in health, economics, development, environment, education, agriculture, media and other areas. The Liberia trip is the 14th IRP Gatekeepers trip since 2000. Previous IRP Gatekeeper editors have traveled to Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa, Lebanon/Syria, India, Egypt, Nigeria, Korea, Uganda, Turkey, Kenya, Peru and China.
In addition to the Gatekeeper Fellowships, the IRP continues to offer individual fellowships to U.S. reporters to travel overseas on five-week reporting trips. Support for the IRP is provided by foundations, individuals and non-governmental donors. Major support for the Liberia trip is provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Humanity United, the Stanley Foundation and others.